When he arrived in Reading, Betts wanted the Universityâs art course to match the level of a London art school. Among the first new staff he hired was Walter Bayes (1869 â 1956), a founder member of the Camden Town Group. This short-lived society of British artists reflected modern urban life in their work.
Walter Sickert (1860 â 1942) was their most influential member. By 1933, he was an experienced teacher, writer, and celebrity with strong views on art. He became a personal friend of Betts. Over the next 25 years, Sickert remained a major influence on Bettsâ teaching and collecting at Reading.
Sickert taught artists to draw quickly to prevent over-worked images, and not to rub out mistakes. The nude was one of his most important and influential subjects. He was also fascinated by documenting popular urban scenes such as interiors and performers in music halls.
Sunken in the centre of a large bed, the model for this drawing is Bayesâ wife, Kitty. Multi-directional lines, scribbles and swirls dominate the page. Encased slumbering in a pillow, Kittyâs head resides in an oasis of calm amidst the domestic furnishings and decoration. Notes of yellow, blue and green on the back wall, and red on the toes of Kittyâs shoes, are introduced over the dominant black to allude to the plush, colourful interior in which she resides.
The diamond structure of the adjacent garden trellises in this garden scene must have appealed to Bayesâ keen interest in perspective and architectural detail. As this drawing shows, he regularly drew and painted scenes from his travels. However â unlike other members of the Camden Town group â Bayes believed that students should not be limited to drawing from life. He championed learning the rules of perspective so they could represent âanything of which we know the dimensions and structural principlesâ.
Sickert sought to re-invent the way in which artists represented the female body. He advocated for âtruthfulâ images that showed the model in their everyday environment. One of Sickertâs earliest nude studies, The Little Bed employs a secret âkeyholeâ viewpoint and uses a hard iron bedstead as a foil for the soft curves of the female body. Standing at the head of the figure, scarcely visible, is another nude female torso cut off at the breasts and hips.
Far from searching for the perfect human form, Sickert preferred ordinary models with regular, misshapen bodies. He also looked for ways to avoid arranging them like classical sculptures. Here, the model adopts an awkward balletic stance â her leg raised on the bedstead as she reaches forward and touches her knee with her chin. Multiple outlines of the quickly-sketched figure are visible, showing how Sickert changed and refined the composition as he worked.
The model here is identified as Marie Hayes, who also worked part-time as Sickertâs housekeeper. She posed, naked and clothed, with âHubbyâ â a former seaman and Sickertâs odd-job man â who is always clothed like the male model in this drawing. This contrast, and Marieâs direct gaze, makes us acutely aware of her nakedness. As she twists on the bed, the exaggerated swell of her breasts and stomach are revealed to the viewer.
Sickert challenged the spectatorâs expectations of art by focusing attention on the psychological tensions of everyday life. He explored the theme of suffocating boredom or âEnnuiâ in a series of paintings and drawings set in the corner of this room. Here, a woman lounges on a couch, but in later compositions male and female models are introduced in different configurations. Rapidly drawn in chalk, Sickert returned to the drawing to pick out key details in ink.
This design was published in Punch magazine on 11 February 1888. From an inscription affixed to the sheet, it appears to be one of the designs on which Keene collaborated with his friend Joseph Crawhall (1821-1896). Crawhall proposed ideas and amusing captions for Keene. In this case, the bridegroom checks that his new wife is comfortable and asks to swap places when she confirms she is!
Keene took a particular interest in the life of working-class people. This design illustrated an article written from the perspective of the man-servant Robert and published in Punch magazine on 30 October 1886. The accompanying text is written in a colloquial style mimicking Robertâs speech. He described receiving an unexpected invitation to a âlittle swarryâ hosted by Cook of âPortland Plaiceâ whilst âthe fammerlyâs out of townâ. Keene shows them dancing before supper.
Gore was the first President of the Camden Town Group. He was inspired by frequent visits to Londonâs music halls â especially the Alhambra Theatre of Varieties in Leicester Square. This vibrant pastel sketch illustrates Goreâs fascination with the colour and movement of the stage. Bright coloured dashes illuminate to the surface of the dancerâs costumes under the bright lights. The sweeping curve across the page references the edge of the theatre box from which Gore observed the performance.
âIf you are going [to the theatre] only one evening at a time, draw as quickly as you can and leave. Or draw only the head or hands or legs with the bit of scenery it comes against. It is very difficult to get very much out of a whole figure in one nightâ â These words by Gore are reflected in the disjointed bodies and floating heads, legs and feet on this page. He would often return to the same theatre performance, and seat, several times to complete a drawing. His sketchbooks were used as source material for his paintings.
Children were a staple feature of Victorian music-halls, which Sickert captures in this vibrant pencil study of three young girls performing with drums. The figures are quickly noted and decrease in completeness and detail from left to right across the page. Sickert was interested in exploring the obscuring effects of stage lighting on contour and form. The drawing is a preparatory study for the oil painting The Three Drummers (c.1890).
Here, Sickert focuses on the crowds who gathered in the front stalls at music hall performances. They wear an impressive array of hats with curved shapes and decorative flourishes that mirror the architectural details on the wall behind. Despite the inscription in Sickertâs hand identifying the subject as the âNew Oxfordâ theatre, the architecture more closely matches The New Bedford. The study likely belongs to a group of drawings Sickert made at the theatre around 1908.
Sickert was a permanent resident in Dieppe, Normandy in the period 1898-1905. The French cafĂ© concert was similar to the English music hall of the same period â with performances of popular songs and selections of novelty acts. Here, Sickert captures a female performer mid-song, open-mouthed and arms outstretched. Her words are provided in the inscription below: âQueen Marguerite/ with gentle glance/ my heart beats/ flies towards youâ (in English translation).
The pose of this performer, and angle from which she is viewed, is similar to one of Sickertâs most famous music hall paintings Little Dot Hetherington at the Old Bedford Theatre (1888-1889). Sickert frequently followed entertainers from hall to hall as they performed on different bills. He may have followed Dot from the Bedford to the Middlesex to watch her sing âThe Boy I Love is Up in the Galleryâ. This drawing very likely served as a compositional study for the painting.
Vernets was a cabaret cafĂ© on the Quai Henri IV in Dieppe. This drawing is from one of Sickertâs final stays in the town following the end of the First World War. He depicts a backstage view of a female performer, who has been drawn twice. The ghostly outline of a second figure, behind the first, leans backwards in a more exaggerated fashion. The redrawn figure is closer to the performerâs position and pose in the finished painting, Au Caboulot au Bout du Quai (c.1920).